Shadow Academy takes a trip to The Other Side with their new animated video

By Natasha Scharf
( Prog )
last updated

Ninja Sex Party's Dan Avidan shares "incredible" new Shadow Academy clip for The Other Side – the prog duo's self-titled debut album is out now

Shadow Academy
(Image credit: Press)

Shadow Academy have released an unexpected animated clip to accompany their atmospheric album track, The Other Side – taken from their self-titled debut album, which is out now.

The duo – comprising Ninja Sex Party's Dan Avidan and producer Jim Roach – was born during the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic and the album, Shadow Academy, has its roots in classical literature as well as Avidan's passion for Rush. 

Says Avidan, “This video wasn’t part of our original plans, but ended up happening because our animator [Simon Macko] called me late one night to say how he couldn’t sleep because he had been listening to The Other Side and had all these amazing images running through his head. Jim and I figured that if Simon was that inspired, we should let him run with it and see what he’d create. I’m so glad we did. The video is incredible!”

Shadow Academy released their debut single, the Moby Dick-inspired White Whale, in February 2022 and are currently working on new material for a second album.

Says Roach of the ongoing collaboration, "This is the music I would make if I was given $100,000 of equipment and a desert island. If I could do this all the time, it would be great!"

Natasha Scharf
Natasha Scharf
Deputy Editor, Prog

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.